Instructor: Doug Singleton

Office : McLane J-Wing Room 24

Office Hours : MW 1230-1330 and TTh 1230-1400 or by appointment

Class Hours: TTh 1530-1645

Room : McLane 162

Phone : 278-2523

E-mail : dougs@csufresno.edu 

Text : Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 6th Ed. , Serway & Jewett

Grading :

3 Tests at 50% ; Problem Sets 25% ; Final Exam 25 %

A = 90-100 ; B = 78 - 89.99 ; C = 65 - 77.99 ; D = 50 - 64.99 ; F < 50 

 The above grading scale will not be moved; any scaling will occur on the individual tests/exams. If there is a dispute in the grading of the tests, the final exam or for the final grade then you can present your case to me one time during my office hours, after class or at some other time that we can arrange. If after this you still feel that your test, final exam or overall grade deserves another look you can write down your reasons for me to reconsider my grading. This written request must be typed and must be a minimum of 1/2 page single space for test or final exam questions, and a minimum of 1 page single spaced for the overall grade. I expect that most of these rules will never be used, since the single face to face meeting is usually enough to figure out whether the grade should be changed or not. 

Tests and Final Exam : There are three tests. A final exam will be given in McLane 162 on May 17 from 1745-1945. The tests will consist of some concept questions as well as some problems that must be worked out in detail. The final exam is comprehensive and will follow the format of the tests. Test and final scores will be posted by student ID number. If you do not want your grade posted let me know in writing or by sending me an email. If you don't want your grade posted electronically I won't email it to you. You will need to pick your test score up in class or by coming to my office.

Make-Up Tests or Final Exam : If you know you are not going to be able to take a test or the final exam on the dates given , and if you have a valid, documented reason, and you let me know of this at least one full week before hand I'll give you a make-up at the earliest mutually convenient time for myself and all the students who missed the test. If you don't let me know at least one week before hand you'll have to take a zero on the test. If you miss one test for serious and compelling reasons, and if you have documentation of this, then I will take your final exam score and count it for this missed test score. If you miss more than one test for unforeseen reasons you'll have to take a zero on one of the tests, and you may want to withdraw from the course.

Homework : In order to have a chance at understanding the material in a physics course you have to practice (i.e. do homework problems). I will assign 10-15 problems on roughly a weekly basis. Short sketches of the solutions will be posted/provided. The homework will come from the text, but be done online through WEB ASSIGN. You are encouraged to discuss the problems with other students, the TAs, or me. However, directly copying someone else's homework solutions is almost next to useless.

How to do well in this course : Physics is different than most subjects you may have taken. Unless you're exceptionally gifted it's very hard to learn physics by ``cramming''. Here are some tips and advice that should help you with the course.

	Do the homework. Not only does it count in the grading of the course, but it should let you know how well your understanding the material. Also doing the homework should help you get ready for the test and final exam problems. Don't expect verbatim homework problems however. Since this semester I am going to online homework all problems will be graded so there should be no more issue about unfair grading.
	Read the material in the text before you come to lecture. It's much harder to understand a lecture if you don't know at least a rough outline of what the lecture is going to be about. Also if you find something obscure in the reading then you'll be able to ask about it when I get to it in lecture. Also given the breath of material it is not possible to cover everything in lecture thus fully 50% of the material you will have to learn from reading on your own. If you do not understand the concept from the reading then ask me during class, office hours or during TA hours.
	Attend the lectures. I'll try to supplement the reading in the book through a different presentations, by working examples, and doing demonstrations. By attending the lectures you'll also get an idea of what I consider to be important, and from a practical point of view this will be useful to you on tests. Finally, you are responsible for everything in lecture even if you don't attend. If I decide to move a test date (not very likely) and announce this during a lecture that you missed you are still responsible for this.
	Plan to spend a minimum of 12 hours a week outside of class on this course. This course requires significantly more time in order to understand the material than the normal course.
	As soon as something is unclear you should ask me to clarify it, either during class, or my office hours or by e-mail or phone. Despite its reputation physics is very ``common sense'' and if explained properly should be straightforward to understand. In addition to coming to my office hours you can also get help from the graduate TAs. Here is the TA Schedule.

Students with Disabilities : Students with disabilities which will affect their participation in the course in any way should identify themselves tot he instructor so that appropriate arrangements can be made.

Conduct, Cheating, and Plagiarism : Please refer to the Policies and Regulations section of the University Catalog for the University policies governing conduct, cheating, and plagiarism.

 

Changes in schedule, policy, and things not covered above : Changes to course policy, test dates, homework due dates will be announced in class. Even if you don't attend class you are responsible for any announced changes. For anything not specifically covered above I will make the policy later if and when it becomes necessary.

•   The course outline can be found here.

•   The online Homework Assignment can be found here. To sign on go to the website www.webassign.net. Your username is your last name or in the case of duplicate names your user name will be the first (or first few) letters of your first name in front of your last name. Your initial password is your student ID number. For institution you enter "csufresno". You can change your password but not your username. Answers to the homework are available after the due date. Worked out solutions on all the problems are not available so if you can't get a problem before the answers are available try to figure it out afterward. If you still can't talk to a TA or me. 

•   A Practice Exam can be found here. Example Formula Sheet is here.

•   The Test Grades, and Final Grade can be found here by SSN